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ADDRESS OF WELCOME 



Association of Military Surgeons. 



SAMUEL C. BUSEY, M. D. 
President M. 5., D. C. 



Delivered at Washington, May i, 1894. 



washington, d. c. : 

Gibson Bros., Printers and Bookbinders. 

1894. 



The Association of 
Military Surgeons of the United States, 

Washington, D. C, March 19, 1894. 

Samuel C. Busey, M. D., 

President Medical Society, 

District of Colamhia, 1545 / Street N. W. 
My Dear Doctor : The Fourth Annual Meeting of the 
Association of Militar}^ Surgeons of the United States 
will be held in this city May 1st, 2d, and 3d, next. The 
first meeting will take place at Albaugh's Opera House on 
the morning of May 1st. The Committee of Arrange- 
ments will be exceedingly grateful to you if you "will de- 
liver an address of welcome to the delegates of the As- 
sociation on the part of the Medical Society of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia. 

Very respectfully, 

GEORGE HENDERSON, 

Chairman Cornmittee of Arrangements. 

At the meeting of the society held March 23, after the 
reading of the above communication. Dr. McArdle moved 
that Dr. Busey be requested to accept the invitation if 
agreeable to himself, which was adopted. 



ADDKESS OF WELCOME 

TO THE 

ASSOCIATION OF MILITARY SURGEONS 

BY SAMUEL C. BUSEY, M. D., 

President, M. S., D. C. 
Delivered at Washington, May i, 1894. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen : I am here, as the repre- 
sentative of the Medical Societj' of the District of Cohimbia, 
to extend to you the right hand of fraternal fellowship and 
comity of a society which is one of twelve medical societies 
in this country that have passed the age of seventy -five years 
in active and continuous existence, and to bid you wel- 
come to the city of its birth, in which it has lived these 
many years, contemporaneous in history, progress, and 
power svith the growth, development, and prosperity of 
this meti'opolis, and now, as heretofore, commands the 
respect and confidence of the communit}'. Its beginning 
was inspired by that spirit of beneficence which bound its 
founders together in one compact body of such, and only 
such, physicians as were qualified to practise the healing 
art and to promote and disseminate medical and surgical 
knowledge, that the people might be protected from the 
wrongs and injuries inflicted by chailatans and pretend- 
ers. Throughout its long life it has accepted, maintained, 



;iiid followed the maxim of the Republic — " Uuion, now 
and forever, one and inseparable," as alike applicable to 
the advancement of scientific medicine as to the mainte- 
nance of the union of these States. With firm, steadfast, 
and unwavering devotion to the highest aims of medical 
science, it has successfully passed through many vicissi- 
tudes of political agitation, bid defiance to assaults from 
without, and outlived schisms in its own membership. 

It passed through the period of internecine strife and 
emerged from that conflict of havoc, bloodshed, and waste 
of treasure increased in number and power, and stands 
here to-day to bid welcome to this organization, which is 
the outgrowth of that development, and the first to unite 
in organized and cohesive effort to utilize, promote, ad- 
vance, and perfect the science of military medicine and 
surgery ; and let it be said here and now that if those armies 
could have been equipped with such men and appliances 
as they could be to-day, the missiles of warfare would have 
found many thousands less of victims, and untold millions 
of treasure would have been saved. The war gave impetus 
to new thought, to new and broader conceptions of mili- 
tary duty, and the achievements of modern American sur- 
gery owe their inception to the opportunities and lessons 
which you and others have expanded and applied in the 
interest of a common humanity. And now this country 
holds the sceptre of surgery. 

In 1858 the lamented Harvey Lindsley, in his address 
of welcome to the American Medical Association, then as- 
sembled in this city, after gi"^ing expression to his regret 
and mortification that the city was so barren of all that 
would interest the votaries of medical science and attract 
the pleasure-seeker and tourist, he added, in language that 
reads like the inspiration of prophecy, " the day is not 
far distant . . . when by the liberality of a great people 



our public buildings, our literary and scientific institu- 
tions, our national parks and botanic gardens will be 
worthy of the grand metropolis of a nation which, per- 
haps within the next half century, will be the most popu- 
lous, powerful, and wealthy in Christendom." I heard 
those words thirty-six years ago, and I stand here to-day, 
representing the same organization, to bid you welcome 
to the Capital, in which every prediction has been real- 
ized, and 3^et it has but reached the stage of growth and 
development which is but the promise of what it is to be 
in the future, when, as the Nation's Capital, reflecting its 
power, glory, and wealth, it will surpass in all that per- 
tains to art, literature, science, civilization, and human 
comforts and luxuries the most favored metropolis of the 
civilized world. 

That you may better appreciate the modesty of Lindsley's 
description and the fulness of his prophecy, let me tell 
you that when I came here, some years earlier, there were 
but two streets partly paved, but few sidewalks paved be- 
yond the centre of the city, they being, for the most part, im- 
proved by midway ridges of gravel and coal ashes, but there 
were long stretches of zigzag paths along Avhich pedestrians 
could walk only in single file. There were no telephones, 
street tramways, nor cable and trolley systems of rapid 
transit to fill the wards of an emergency hospital and encour- 
age the incidental sciences of embalming and undertaking ; 
street transportation was limited to a few hotel omnibuses, 
through-line coaches, a few hackney carriages, a corps of 
night-liners, as now, and Shanks' mare. Frojn the Capitol 
to Georgetown several antiquated busses ran at irregular 
intervals along Pennsylvania aveniie. The fare for a ride 
each way for each passenger was one eleven -penny bit, 
but a colored nurse or maid could not get a ride at any 
price unless she had somebody's white baby in her lap. 



The back yards of many private dwellings were 
decorated with pig-stys, cow-slieds and pens for the gangs 
of unyoked geese. During the day the animals and fowls 
roamed at will, singly or in herds or flocks, through the 
streets and over the fields in lordly insolence. Garbage 
was thrown into the carriage-ways or back alleys, and 
swine were the privileged and protected scavengers. To 
jostle against or drive over one of these municipal func- 
tionaries when out on his tour of sanitary inspection in- 
curred a cash penalt}^ or brief servitude in the workhouse. 
The swine UTiisanco dominated the city avithorities until a 
gentleman was knocked down and killed by one running 
between his legs, and the family milch-cows were finally 
driven to the shambles by the more economical and 
adulterated milk supplies from the dairy farms of Maryland 
and Virginia. The goose industry bade defiance to every 
protest until the robber bands learned the flavor of their 
flesh. During that early period I have trudged on foot, 
through sunshine and shower, along the well-beaten paths 
for short cuts across the fields and through the slashes, in 
search of some lonely hut situated over yonder be- 
hind or near b}' some other equally undefined locality, 
here and there, along the way, driving a drove of swine 
from their mire or hustling away from the corporation 
bulls ; or during the night along streets, alleys, and by- 
ways so dark with blackness that eyes were most useful 
when closed, or so dimly lighted with lard-oil lamps so 
remotely separated they seemed like ig/ies fatui enticing 
one into the dismal realms of hobgoblins and ghosts ; or, 
perchance, in some localities — now traversed by well-paved 
streets and avenues adorned on either side with palatial 
residences — along the pathways only trodden by the 
beasts of the field. 

Then the war came, and Avitli it a transformation not 



less surprising than the primitive methods and conditions 
to which I have referred. The barren farm and pasture 
lands were occupied with encampments, fortifications, 
parade grounds, hospitals, wagon-yards, mule-pens, and 
other munitions of warfare. The streets were in contin- 
uous martial array, with troops equipped for the field. 
In brief, the city was one great impregnable fortress, pro- 
tecting a government that never for one moment faltered 
in courage or paused in prosecution. With these stupend- 
ous preparations and masses of troops there came the 
omnium gatheriiiii of contrabands, refugees, scalawags, 
camp followers, tramps, substitute brokers, wild-cat- 
money changers, fiat-money people, office-seekers as 
now, and, last but not least, the croakers who lived upon 
the innocent credulity of timid women and cowardice 
of malingerers who wanted war but somebody else to do 
the fighting. The croaker tarries with us yet and con- 
tinues, like " querulous frogs in muddy pools," to croak. 
Nevertheless, those of you who saw the city then will 
mark the contrast now. Peace reigns where martial law 
dominated. Progress and development have marked 
every decade of the city's history since the close of the 
war. Now go where you may please along these beauti- 
ful streets, these avenues of foliage trees, or out upon the 
hill-tops that environ the city, and the prospect and 
landscape will leave the memory of beauty in nature and 
excellence in art. The monument in honor of him whose 
name the city bears rises from the lowlands high into 
space above, as the nation's memorial to him who was 
" first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his 
countrymen ; " the Capitol, in which assembles annually 
the highest tribunals of legislation and justice, stands, in 
beauty and perfection of architectural finish, above the 
rising and setting sun, in token of the supreme majesty 
of a united people ; the new Library building approach- 



iiif^ completion, with its gold-gilded dome reflecting and 
diffusing the rays of sunlight and sun life in emblematic 
dissemination of the knowledge to be stored within its 
granite walls; the new Naval Observatory, far away 
from the busy mart and travel, towards the western limits 
of the city, is a fitting compliment to that branch of the 
service which in the coming future will make the nation 
the master of the seas ; and right here in the open park, 
near by, the historic mansion, with its walls hanging in 
portraiture of the men who have filled the highest office 
in the gift of a great and free people ; and then, too, on 
the highland beyond the Potomac, overlooking the city, 
is the bivouac of seventeen thousand dead, whose glory 
will never fade. All these, with many other commemora- 
tive memorials, are but the symbols of the nation's pride, 
wealth, gratitude, prowess, and majesty. 

I cannot detain you with an enumeration of* the 
charitable, educational, and eleemosynary foundations 
which mark the progress since the development began, 
but must broadly state that in learned and scientific in- 
stitutions, departments, bureaus and great national 
libraries, with their corps of experts in every branch of 
science, this city offers opportunities unsurpassed in any 
city in this country. With three universities fully 
equipped and in successful operation, another with ten 
millions of people behind it is preparing to garner the 
harvest waiting in ripeness for the sickle and the scythe. 

And now, coming closer to that branch of science 
which most concerns you, I must remind you that the 
same spirit which has given impetiis to new thought and 
to new and enlarged conceptions of scientific research 
has established in this city a medical library greater in 
number and value of volumes than any similar library in 
the world, and an anatomical and pathological museum 
unsurpassed in the variety of its collections. These 



foundations are outgrowths of the war. They have been 
developed at such trilling expense and have contributed 
so much to the promotion and attainment of a higher 
standard of medical education that one feels mean at the 
economy which seeks to limit their expansion. 

In this connection let me say here and to you, gentle- 
men, who are members of that profession whose mission 
will not be attained until the causes of diseases are eradi- 
cated and death is limited to the ailments to which flesh 
is necessarily heir, and the processes of waste and decay, 
that the time has come Avhen it should assert itself with 
all the vigor, force, and power which a hundred thousand 
men united in a common cause can develop aud exercise. 
There is not one family nor one voter throughout this 
broad laud that some one of us cannot reach and tell the 
story of parsimony which denies to sanitary science, pro- 
tective and preventive medicine the opportunity to 
accomplish the full measure of philanthropy. Nay, even 
more ; this great and munificent Government educates its 
military officers, builds ships of war, adorns villages with 
costl}^ public buildings, wastes millions on rivers and har- 
bors, permits every quack, pretender, impostor, and fraud 
to practise medicine Avho may find dupes to gnll, deceive, 
maim, or kill, and seeks to strangle medical research by 
withholding the trifling pittance of a hundred journal sub- 
scriptions. With all this expenditure and waste of treas- 
ure there is not a poor boy or woman in all the land who 
can acquire a first-class medical education except by the 
sweat of his or her brow, or charity of some benevolent 
citizen, and yet there is not one man in either the national 
or State legislatures who, when sick and thinks the devil 
is at his door, Avaiting for his departed spirit, will fail to 
cry for help, relief, and time to make his election sure. 

In conclusion, I offer you the hospitality of our good 
will, and beg you to believe us to be your good friends. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS '^^ 



014 369 556 6 



